In the aftermath of the Cowboys’ 24-22 win over the Seattle Seahawks, my gut told me the road to an NFC title game appearance needed to go through the famed LA Coliseum. Maybe it was the memory of Dak Prescott lighting up the Rams in that preseason game in 2016. Or it could be the fact Cowboys fans have always shown up in a huge way when their team plays on the West Coast.

But for the purpose of this column, let’s dig a little deeper. The biggest reason the Cowboys have a really good shot of knocking off the high-flying Rams is because they have the hotter quarterback in the matchup. Some of my fellow writers/broadcasters nearly injured themselves from tweeting so much that Jason Garrett had lost his mind by playing Dak Prescott the whole game against the New York Giants in Week 17. But I credit Jason Garrett and even the much-maligned Scott Linehan for knowing Prescott needed to regain his confidence, or swagger.

Prescott looked decisive in the passing game Saturday and then he closed out the Seahawks with his legs. I’m not trying to tell you that Prescott will be a better quarterback than Goff in the long-term. I’m just saying he’s the quarterback who appears to have the most confidence of the two at the moment. And while Goff lost his safety-blanket wide receiver Cooper Kupp for the season in Week 10, Prescott was forging a productive relationship with Amari Cooper. The Cowboys have become a completely different offense with Cooper, although he’s been much better at home than on the road. Again, maybe all those Cowboys fans at the Coliseum will make him comfortable.

Prescott has done a much better job of protecting the football over the past three games after fumbling issues for much of the season. Goff put up monster numbers in the Rams’ 54-51 Week 11 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and that game was emblematic of a record-setting NFL season in terms of offense. But in the ensuing weeks, Goff’s numbers tailed off in a big way. You may have been so busy tracking Prescott’s concerning numbers that you missed Goff going through a three-game stretch (Week 13-15) where he only completed 55 percent of his passes and had one touchdown against six interceptions.

I was watching the Rams-Eagles game in Week 14 when Los Angeles had a chance to score at the end of the first half. Goff basically threw the ball away on three straight plays where he was trying to hit former Aggies great Josh Reynolds. He wasn’t even in Reynolds’ zip code on any of the throws and it led to a smattering of boos. Was it something that Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz had discovered, or had Goff suddenly lost his mojo?

I think what the Cowboys will see on tape is teams finally started taking away Goff’s initial reads. He seems to flourish when he knows exactly where to go with the football at the start of the play. What the Bears and Eagles did in back-to-back weeks was show a lot of different looks so that Goff had to get to his secondary reads. This is an area where I think Prescott has an advantage. He can extend plays with his legs and still make plays downfield. Goff seems to get in trouble when he has to go off-schedule or spend too much time in the pocket.

I know the Cowboys had a brilliant game plan against Drew Brees and the Saints in Week 13. But it’s hard for me to believe they were going to walk into the Superdome and produce a similar result. To be fair, Goff bounced back and had five touchdowns and no interceptions against the Cardinals and 49ers. Maybe he needed to regain his footing, just like Prescott.

I just know that about a month ago, we would’ve clearly given the quarterback advantage in Saturday’s game to the Rams. That’s not quite as clear to me as we sit here today.